DOJ opposes special master for documents seized from Trump, says more than 100 classified records found at Mar-a-Lago

The Division of Justice late Tuesday revealed that the FBI seized greater than 100 categorised paperwork from former President Donald Trump’s Florida dwelling earlier this month because the division urged a choose to reject Trump’s request to have these and different data reviewed by a particular grasp.

The Justice Division argued in a courtroom submitting that Trump lacked the authorized standing to make such a request, and stated that appointing a particular grasp may hurt nationwide safety.

The division additionally stated that it has proof that authorities data probably had been hid and faraway from a storage room at Trump’s dwelling at his Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Seashore, “and that efforts had been probably taken to impede the federal government’s investigation.”

Trump had sued to dam the Justice Division from additional investigating any supplies taken within the raid till a court-appointed particular grasp is ready to analyze them. That step is often taken when there’s a probability that some proof ought to be withheld from prosecutors due to numerous authorized privileges.

“As an preliminary matter, the previous President lacks standing to hunt judicial aid or oversight as to Presidential data as a result of these data don’t belong to him,” the DOJ wrote to Decide Aileen Cannon in U.S. District Court docket in southern Florida.

Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, has set a listening to for Thursday at 1 p.m. ET in a West Palm Seashore courthouse. Trump’s authorized group has till Wednesday night time to answer to the DOJ’s newest submitting.

Not solely is appointing a particular grasp “pointless,” however doing so “would considerably hurt vital governmental pursuits, together with nationwide safety pursuits,” the prosecutors wrote Tuesday.

That hurt may embrace impeding the intelligence neighborhood’s “ongoing assessment of the nationwide safety danger” that will have been attributable to “improper storage of those extremely delicate supplies,” the DOJ argued.

The response got here someday after the DOJ revealed to a federal choose that its assessment of the seized supplies was full.

A regulation enforcement group recognized a “restricted set” of supplies that could be protected by attorney-client privilege, the DOJ informed the courtroom on Monday. That privilege usually refers back to the authorized doctrine that protects the confidentiality of communications between an legal professional and their consumer.

The so-called Privilege Evaluate Staff — which is separate from the investigation that led the FBI to look Trump’s residence earlier this month — is following a course of to “deal with potential privilege disputes, if any,” the DOJ wrote.

The Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence, or ODNI, “can be main an intelligence neighborhood evaluation of the potential danger to nationwide safety that will end result from the disclosure of those supplies,” based on the submitting.

The DOJ is conducting a felony investigation of the elimination of White Home paperwork and their cargo to Trump’s residence at his Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Seashore when he left workplace.

By regulation, presidential data should be turned over to the Nationwide Archives and Information Administration when a president leaves workplace.

The Nationwide Archives and Information Administration retrieved 15 containers of data from Mar-a-Lago in January. The following month, NARA despatched a referral to the DOJ that the data contained “extremely categorised paperwork intermingled with different data,” based on the affidavit used to acquire the warrant for the Aug. 8 search of Trump’s dwelling.

The DOJ stated in Tuesday night time’s submitting that the FBI had “uncovered a number of sources of proof indicating … that categorised paperwork remained” at Mar-a-Lago.

“The federal government additionally developed proof that authorities data had been probably hid and faraway from the Storage Room and that efforts had been probably taken to impede the federal government’s investigation,” the DOJ wrote.

That proof contradicted a June 3 letter from the custodian of Trump’s data, certifying that “any and all” paperwork attentive to a grand jury subpoena had been handed over, the DOJ wrote.

The August search “forged critical doubt on the declare within the certification … that there had been ‘a diligent search’ for data attentive to the grand jury subpoena,” based on the DOJ’s submitting.

Of the proof taken in that raid, “over 100 distinctive paperwork with classification markings — that’s, greater than twice the quantity produced on June 3, 2022, in response to the grand jury subpoena — had been seized,” the DOJ wrote.

Earlier than the DOJ posted its late-night response, a gaggle of former authorities officers requested the choose to allow them to file a short as “amici curiae” — Latin for “buddies of the courtroom” — arguing in opposition to Trump’s requests.

The group included six former federal prosecutors who served in Republican administrations, in addition to former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who ruled as a Republican however backed President Joe Biden over Trump in 2020.

That is breaking information. Please verify again for updates.